October 26, 2009

October 20, 2009

I have been installing the beta of Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" on an external USB disk. Ubuntu is a version of the open source (i.e. free) operating system Linux. It is very usable, and runs happily on old machines that struggle to run Windows. Best of all, it boots happily from an external disk, so I can plug my disk into any machine and I have "my" PC back again.

There are still a couple of bugs in the 9.10 beta, but the full release version comes out this week.

October 03, 2009

Here are some photos from the Terraces reunion. Things have changed a bit in 20 years, but not that much. Thanks very much to the current residents at The Terraces for being so kind as to let us see how things look now.

Note the phone hole is gone, and for the record I was never part of the group who climbed through to next door in the middle of the night to watch TV. The kitchens have much more storage space than when we lived there, and all the bathrooms have been refurbished. The shade cloth out the back of 64-66 is great.

While it was great to see so many people we haven't seen for years, it was also inspiring to hear about the new church building.

There were various reunions over the weekend. I went to a reunion for the St Barnabas Terraces ("Hostels" in my day). Some things are just as they were 20 years ago (yes it really is that long), like the vines between #76 and #78, while some things are new and improved (e.g. kitchens in #80)!

It's been a while between posts, but that's because I have been too busy watching television:

Flight of the Conchords - A fantastic show from HBO about a couple of Kiwi musicians trying to make it in New York. Mondays at 21:00 on SBS1.

Masterchef Australia - At first I thought this would be more boring reality TV, but the quality has been really good. The editing is slick, and the content engrossing. Well done tonight Julie. Nightly on Ten.

The Chaser's War on Everything - To be fair, I think The Chaser has been a bit weak this season, but I actually thought the "Make a Realistic Wish" sketch was pretty funny. Wednesdays at 21:00 on ABC1.

March 23, 2009

I removed my link to feedmap.net today. It used to provide links to blogs geographically close to yours, along with a nice map. For a while now it has been saying that my blog is in The Sound in Wales, and the clickable map is gone.

March 09, 2009

After planning a new bike for a long time my wife was kind enough to buy me a Trek 7.2 FX for my birthday recently. I have only managed a few rides, but so far it's a great bike. I look forward to being a cyclist again.

March 06, 2009

After weeks of preparation the import of Australian suburb boundaries into Open Street Map is now under way. Thanks to the helpful people at the Australia Bureau of Statistics who made the data available and to Franc for persevering with it.

January 28, 2009

OK, it was a few weeks ago now, but I think it's worth posting that we all had a great time at CMS Summer School in Katoomba in January. I enjoyed the talks by Dr William Philip, but I think I probably got the most out of the missionary info sessions.

Summer School leaves your afternoons free to explore the Blue Mountains, so I got a chance to do some walking along the Pope's Glen track in Blackheath to Govett's Leap. The views at Govett's Leap are quite breathtaking.

How are we doing today? How we doin'? Great, great. You're looking good. Love the shirt. Let me guess: Christmas present? Knew it. Great. Hey man, whenever you get a sec—and it's no biggie—I was hoping you could just pop on over to my office real quick so I can fire you.